HAVE LEGISLATORS LOST THEIR MARBLES?

​During my early years living in Canada, I adopted the tradition of playing marbles on the playground at the first sign of Spring. Marbles was a game but also serious business. Marbles were our currency. We collected them, traded them and invented numerous games to win them from each other. The social hierarchy in my elementary school revolved around an individual’s marble collection. Quantity was important but quality was key. Certain types of marbles were difficult to obtain. The most valuable by far were the ones we called “beauty boulders” which could only be obtained in the United States. These were large opaque marbles with multi-colored designs on them, and few students had any.
 
One day a young girl named Sophie returned from a trip to the States with a huge box of new beauty boulders. Our eyes nearly popped out of our heads at such a beautiful sight, and soon she was trading her marbles for anything we school kids could come up with. It was a glorious day and I remember going home that evening holding my very first beauty bolder. Late that night I carefully wrapped it in a cloth and slept with it at my side. I had thousands of marbles, but this was my greatest treasure.
 
The following day at school I pulled the beauty from my pocket to show a friend on the playground. I was amazed at his lack of interest. The once rare marbles had become so plentiful that no one even wanted them anymore. Attention at the marble games had turned to the now much rarer crystal boulders. Despite her good intentions, Sophie had destroyed the market for the once great beauty boulder.
 
Congress recently announced another round of stimulus spending. The most recent is a staggering $1.9 trillion, on top of the trillions already spent. No human is even capable of comprehending such numbers. These stimulus packages continue in spite of the fact that the economy is already recovering as the virus effect continues to decline. The governments’ move, unnecessary in this financial advisor’s opinion, will have long lasting effects. At the very least, the flooding of the nation with trillions of new dollars will make the dollars in existence less valuable. Less valuable dollars cause prices to go up. The government recently announced the prior twelve-month inflation rate was 1.7%. Seriously? Where do these people shop? Have they looked at housing prices, rent, fuel, healthcare, food, vehicles (if you can find one)? Would someone please email me about anything they can buy today that is not substantially more expensive than a year ago.
 
I wish legislators had spent a little time in my Canadian elementary school. It may have helped them better understand the consequences of dumping all those extra dollars on our economic playground. In the meantime, it is left to investors to find ways to convert their “less rare” dollars into assets that are more likely to maintain their value in an age of uncontrolled deficit spending.